Selection rules for cavity-enhanced Brillouin light scattering from magnetostatic modes

TL;DR

This paper experimentally identifies magnetostatic modes in a yttrium iron garnet sphere that participate in cavity-enhanced Brillouin light scattering, confirming theoretical selection rules and revealing higher coupling to non-uniform magnons.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental verification of selection rules for Brillouin light scattering involving higher-order magnetostatic modes.

Findings

Higher-order magnetostatic modes can generate optical scattering.

Optomagnonic coupling to non-uniform magnons can surpass that of the Kittel mode.

Selection rules derived from axial symmetry govern the scattering process.

Abstract

We experimentally identify the magnetostatic modes active for Brillouin light scattering in the optical whispering gallery modes of a yttrium iron garnet sphere. Each mode is identified by magnetic field dispersion of ferromagnetic-resonance spectroscopy and coupling strength to the known field distribution of the microwave drive antenna. Our optical measurements confirm recent predictions that higher-order magnetostatic modes can also generate optical scattering, according to the selection rules derived from the axial symmetry. From this we summarize the selection rules for Brillouin light scattering. We give experimental evidence that the optomagnonic coupling to non-uniform magnons can be higher than that of the uniform Kittel mode.